"They had made the promise, now you cannot go back on the word. They will have to listen to us. All the majority parties had supported formation of Telangana. We gave hope to the people, now that has to be fulfilled," Rajaiah was quoted as saying.

The Centre had set a January 28 deadline to come up with a decision, but it has now asked for more time, sparking protests.

The pro-Telangana Congress leaders from the area were under pressure to resign for this reason.

An Andhra Pradesh court has ordered the filing of cases against Union finance minister P. Chidambaram and Union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde on a complaint that they cheated the people of Telangana by backtracking on the statehood promise.